Every year, presbyteries send overtures to the General Assembly for consideration, and as the denomination has grown, so has the number of overtures the Assembly considers. With more overtures to address, commissioners and observers have often wondered how the Assembly will be able to deliberate and dispose of the overtures efficiently, given the Assembly’s time constraints. 

Presbyteries sent 50 overtures to the 52nd General Assembly last year, though one was later withdrawn. Currently, 34 overtures have been submitted to the stated clerk’s office for the 53rd General Assembly, with several months until the overture submission deadline. How do these numbers compare to previous years?

We examined the number of overtures sent to the General Assembly each year from 2000 to 2025. Here are some observations. 

1. The average across all years is 33 overtures per Assembly. The median is 28. It seems that the Assembly can generally expect to receive at least 30 overtures each year.

2. The year with the highest number of overtures was 2016 when 63 overtures were submitted. But the numbers don’t always tell the whole story. In the run-up to the 2016 Assembly, multiple presbyteries sent the same overture, skewing the numbers.

3. The lowest number over the last 25 years came in 2015 when there were only 11 overtures under consideration.

4. The number of overtures doesn’t necessarily impact the time of adjournment. In 2015, when the General Assembly had the fewest overtures, it adjourned on Thursday evening at 11:40 pm. The next year, when the Assembly had a record high number of overtures, it adjourned on Thursday at 11:30 pm. During both Assemblies, the body debated whether to adopt an overture (or, in 2015, a personal resolution) regarding racism, and the topic resulted in lengthy debate.

5. Some overtures carry over from previous years. On multiple occasions, the General Assembly has deferred consideration of a particular overture to the next year. In such cases, the same overture is considered by two different assemblies, which influences the numbers.

6. Generally, the number of overtures submitted each year has increased since 2015. Between 2000 and 2014, the General Assembly considered an average of 28 overtures per year. Since 2015, that number has increased to 40, a 43% increase, while the number of presbyteries in the PCA increased by just 10% during the same period.

7. The year 2021 was also a statistical anomaly because it contained overtures that accumulated over two years. With the Assembly unable to meet in 2020, any overtures submitted in the second half of 2019 and the first half of 2020 were deferred to 2021.

Regularly, an overture reaches the Assembly through an individual or the session of a church. They first present it to their presbytery. Once the presbytery has declined to adopt it, they can send it to the Assembly for consideration. Those overtures are included in the numbers below. 

The Assembly anticipated the need for a more efficient system for handling overtures, and in 2006, it created the Overtures Committee, which makes amendments to and provides recommendations on overtures before they reach the Assembly floor. Before the formation of this committee, overtures were directed to the Bills and Overtures Committee, whose composition and rules of operation were quite different.

The deadline for submitting overtures this year is May 23, 2026, though any overtures proposing an amendment to the BCO or RAO must be submitted by April 24 (RAO 11-6).